Joan Shield
Clara Marney
Doreen and Doug Ward
Mary and Brian Finch
Dolores John Philip
May and Derek Ford
John and Maureen Maltwood
Fred and Joyce Briant
Lucy O'Boyle
Jean and John Duffield (with Bruiser)
Keith Green
Carpenters Estate 2012
To the east of London’s Olympic Park, in Stratford, is a council estate built in the late1960′s, the Carpenters Estate. Over 23 acres, there are 710 homes; 434 in three towers and 276 in low rise maisonettes and terraces. Expectations of estate refurbishment in the early 2000's were followed by a long period of uncertainty about demolition. Flats were decanted, maisonettes boarded up, and half of the homes were empty. An attempt to sell off the estate in 2012 added to the anxiety of its residents
In 2013, Anthony Palmer and Orly Zailer, two photographers who were studying for an MA at Goldsmiths College, began to meet with residents. Discovering that many people had lived on the Carpenters Estate for decades, and some since the estate was new, we started to make this series of portrait photographs. Each sitting would take about an hour and we would talk about what living on the Carpenters Estate had meant to them and how the uncertainty had changed things.The project evolved slowly and the final photograph with Keith Green was made in 2014.
Since 2025, the Carpenters Estate regeneration is finally underway. Two of the three towers, including James Riley Point, which was originally decanted in the early 2000’s, are now to be refurbished. However, much of the low-rise housing will be cleared as the project seeks to densify the number of homes from 710 to 2152. The Carpenters Estate is beginning a new chapter, with the regeneration expected to continue in phases for well over a decade.
